Before students can reason about the 1835 problem, they need the raw material: the words, the story of how Texas got here, and the geography. These three activities are fast and front-loaded — the goal is acquisition, not yet analysis.
Introduce and let students sort the unit vocabulary. Sort twice: first by “words about who lived here” vs. “words about changing rules,” then by student-invented categories (feedback on their reasoning).
| Word | Kid-friendly meaning |
|---|---|
| colony | a settlement of people ruled by a faraway government |
| empresario | a person given permission to bring in and settle new families |
| Tejano | a Texan of Mexican or Spanish heritage |
| Texian | an English-speaking colonist living in Mexican Texas |
| mission | a Spanish religious settlement built to teach and convert Native peoples |
| Mexican Republic | the new nation that ruled Texas after Mexico left Spain in 1821 |
| independence | being free to govern yourself, not ruled by another government |
| revolution | a big, often forceful change in who governs |
| republic | a country where people choose leaders to represent them |
| annexation | one country joining or being added to another |
| stakeholder | anyone who is affected by a decision or has something at stake |
📚 Background: Handbook of Texas · Tejano ↗ · Handbook of Texas · Empresario ↗ — the people behind the words.
Split the class into four expert groups, each studying one topic below, then re-mix into home groups where every topic is represented. Each expert teaches their group. (Jigsaw is one of the highest-leverage surface moves precisely because students must teach.)
Sources for each expert group (free, reputable; confirm access through your district — links open in a new tab):
Long before 1835, Spain built missions and towns in Texas to teach and convert Native peoples and to hold the land. This is where Tejano families and towns like San Antonio began.
📄 Handbook of Texas · Spanish Missions ↗
📄 Handbook · Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) ↗
In 1821 Mexico broke free of Spain and became a republic. To grow Texas, the new government invited settlers — including families from the United States — to move in.
📄 Handbook · Mexican Colonization Laws ↗
📄 Handbook · Anglo-American Colonization ↗
Stephen F. Austin became an empresario and brought the first big group of American families — the “Old Three Hundred” — to farm land in Texas under Mexican law.
📄 Handbook · Stephen F. Austin ↗
📄 Handbook · Old Three Hundred ↗
Over time, colonists and the government disagreed about laws, taxes, and rights. The Law of April 6, 1830 tried to stop new settlement from the U.S., and tension grew on all sides.
📄 Handbook · Law of April 6, 1830 ↗
📄 Handbook · Texas Revolution (causes) ↗
Check for understanding: each home group writes one sentence answering “Name one thing that brought people to Texas, and one thing that made them argue by 1835.”
Using a Texas map, students locate the four main physical regions — Coastal Plains, North Central Plains, Great Plains, and Mountains and Basins. Mark where colonists settled (the fertile Coastal Plains river bottoms of Austin's colony) and older Tejano towns like San Antonio. Talk about why settlement clustered where the land, rivers, and farming were best (§(c)(7)).
Quick write: “Most colonists settled in the ______ region because ______, while older Tejano towns like San Antonio were in the ______.”
🗺️ Maps & sources: Texas Almanac · Physical Regions of Texas ↗ · Bullock Texas State History Museum · Education ↗
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.15; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX.